Quote:
Originally Posted by QuantumIguana
If the publishers go under, they won't bring down the economy with them. Culture and literacy won't be harmed either. People would still buy books, people would till read, and people would still write. Authors would either self-publish or new publishers would arise, better adapted for the 21st century.
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Yep. If there's likely to be an issue it's going to be that important works are lost in the noise rather than lost altogether.
I think we may lose authors who don't know how to compete in a new writing/publishing/marketing jungle, but new writers won't necessarily require the same adjustment as they develop different expectations from the start.
There's no reason to think that important works of literature will be a thing of the past just because of this paradigm shift, and I think best sellers will probably remain as they are now - fodder for the masses, and some will be better than others etc...